Cleo research finds that while tariffs dominated corporate earnings reports, visibility, manufacturing flexibility, and mitigation strategies shaped investor confidence
Cleo, the global leader in AI-native supply chain orchestration solutions through its Cleo Integration Cloud platform, released findings from its latest Supply Chain Earnings Impact Report, revealing that tariffs became the defining supply chain concern of 2025 and other geopolitical events are rising in the ranks this year. The latest research found that companies were not differentiated by whether they faced disruption, but by how effectively they translated visibility into coordinated execution, mitigation, and overall operational control.
“Across every sector analyzed, tariffs, inflation, sourcing pressure, and manufacturing constraints directly impacted business performance,” said Mahesh Rajasekharan, CEO at Cleo.
The report, “Orchestration in Motion: How Supply Chain Leaders Are Winning By Outsmarting Disruption,” examined more than 350 earnings call transcripts from publicly traded mid-market companies between January 2025 and March 2026 and compared the 25 companies with the largest post-earnings stock price increases with the 25 companies with the largest stock price decreases. Across both groups, tariffs, manufacturing, inventory, visibility, backlog, and inflation appeared frequently. The difference was how management framed those issues within the earnings calls. The stronger-performing companies often communicated clear mitigation strategies, operational flexibility, stronger visibility, and greater control over execution. In contrast, weaker-performing companies more often framed those same issues around uncertainty, inventory imbalance, delayed recovery, cost pressure, or limited forecasting confidence.
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“Across every sector analyzed, tariffs, inflation, sourcing pressure, and manufacturing constraints directly impacted business performance,” said Mahesh Rajasekharan, CEO at Cleo. “Disruption and volatility are no longer episodic. Executives at companies that outperformed their peers were the ones who deeply understood their exposure, mitigated risk, and executed quickly. In today’s ever-evolving markets, operational control has become a proxy for business confidence.”
Key takeaways from the Cleo 2026 Supply Chain Earnings Impact Report include:
- Tariff Pressures: A resounding 68% of analyzed transcripts included mentions of tariffs, and were often tied to sourcing decisions, supplier negotiations, pricing actions, manufacturing footprint, and input costs.
- Inventory as an Operating Signal: 65% of transcripts included mentions of inventory, with stronger performing companies describing inventory as normalized, optimized, or aligned with demand. Weaker performers were more likely to cite excess stock, carrying costs, destocking, or demand mismatch.
- Manufacturing Importance: Manufacturing appeared in 50% of transcripts, largely covering themes of companies’ production footprints, capacity, localization, and flexibility in responding to tariff and sourcing pressures.
- Visibility as a Differentiator: Over one-third (34%) of transcripts included mentions of visibility, with stronger performers linking it to demand confidence, backlog clarity, forecasting, and planning transparency. Conversely, lower-performing companies more often associated visibility with demand uncertainty or shortened planning horizons.
- Pulling the AI Lever: Among the top 25 performers, AI or automation was mentioned with 32% of earnings reports. When mentioned, these companies were more likely to connect the technology to specific operation outcomes, including forecasting, labor scheduling, quoting, and customer engagement.
Rajasekharan continued, “Visibility is still critical, but visibility without action does not protect revenue or margins. Today, leading companies are connecting supply chain signals to coordinated action across sourcing, procurement, pricing, manufacturing, logistics, inventory, and customer operations. Supply chain orchestration helps companies unify fragmented information, and turn it into faster, more confident execution, and improve performance.”
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As tariffs, sourcing pressures, and operational complexity reshape supply chain decisions, Cleo’s 2026 Supply Chain Earnings Impact Report reinforces the ongoing need for organizations to move beyond visibility alone and prioritize coordinated execution. Organizations that connect data, systems, workflows, and partners are better positioned to sidestep disruption, protect margins, and respond with greater speed and confidence.
